Friday, February 13, 2009

Taking on Fondant

I spent yesterday working on a cake order for a hockey rink. Since I could not figure out how to make a really smooth top for the cake, I decided to learn how to make and use fondant.

Fondant, if you buy it in a box at say, Michaels, takes like stale cardboard - or an armpit. So, I found a simple recipe on YouTube for making marshmallow fondant which tastes like - marshmallows.

I made a princess daisy lemon cake and a batch of tart lemon curd for the filling. On the edges of the cake I piped a rich butter cream (rich as in 4 sticks of butter and 6 egg yolks) and then filled it in with the lemon curd. After frosting the cake with the remaining butter cream, I put the cake outside to harden.


Then, I took the fondant I made the night before and rolled it out on a pile of powdered sugar. This part really was not that hard and using a fondant smoother I was able to get a pretty finish to the cake - but not a nice edge on the bottom.


So, I rolled a gazillion little balls of fondant to put around the bottom of the cake to make it prettier. Then I rolled out the blue and the red fondants. They were much tricker. I have never worked with fondant and have never taken any cake decorating classes. I usually like my cakes decorated with really good icing and maybe some fresh flowers or chocolate - or just lots of really good icing. Making lines would have been easier with a pizza cutter and the red fondant was freakishly sticky. I think for small decorations, it would have been easier to use the crappy boxed fondant. Lesson learned.


So, I made a HUGE mess - not only in my kitchen, but all over myself as well. However, it was really fun and challenging and the cake looked great when it was done.


Yes, there is only one net, their dog ate the other one. Such is life.

6 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. So the link to the fondant 'recipe' doesn't tell the amounts. How much of each stuff did you use. Did you add color to the ready fondant or did you mix into the melted marshmellow mixture? Is that enough questions for you? I totally want to make a cake now!

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  3. Holy cow! you are amazing! I stay up late and swear the night before each of my kids birthdays as I make their cakes. I wisely made the rule that after 8 they get to choose whatever Costco has in stock that day. But that cake is beautiful...and its even a hockey rink, but I have to admit you had me at the lemon curd...

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  4. awesome, stace!!!! totally awesome!!! love the kiddos' valentines day too and congrats to max on that PIC award.

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  5. Wow! And how did you make the nets?!

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  6. Questions!
    The recipe is one bag of mini marshmallows, a tablespoon or two of water. Microwave until puffy and then stir until smooth. Start adding powdered sugar until it feels like smooth bread dough - this is easiest if you grease your hands and use them instead of a spoon. I divided one batch in half and added food color to the melted marshmallows.
    The nets (one net) are plastic.

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